NCAA FB

San Diego St considers Big East and Mountain West

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. (AP)

San Diego State is planning to attend the Big East's meetings on
Friday, but the school has been talking to the Mountain West about
possibly staying in that conference rather than switching
leagues.

Big East Commissioner Mike Aresco said Tuesday he doesn't
anticipate San Diego State will have a decision at the upcoming
meeting in Dallas.

''Every indication is they want to stay,'' he said after
attending a BCS commissioners meeting. ''Whether they will or not
we still don't know. We're still talking.

''If I had to guess, it would shake out in a couple of
weeks.''

San Diego State has committed to join the Big East as a
football-only member in 2013. The school plans to have the rest of
its sports compete in the Big West.

The Aztecs joined the Big East along with Boise State, when the
rebuilding conference was attempting to put together a
coast-to-coast football league. But the Broncos backed out last
month after the most recent Big East defections and struck a deal
to stay in the Mountain West. Now SDSU is looking into doing the
same, but the MW has to decide if it wants the Aztecs back.

The Mountain West recently restructured its television deal with
CBS Sports Network, which allowed the conference to cut a deal with
Boise State that could allow the Broncos and their powerful
football program to make more revenue than the rest of the schools
in the league.

Mountain West Commissioner Craig Thompson said conference
leaders have been trying to get San Diego State up to speed on the
new TV deal, while considering whether to go to 12 members or stick
with 11.

''We're just trying to understand how the league is going to
work,'' he said. ''Trying to understand what their wants, desires,
concerns might be and then our board would get together and say,
`Yeah, we can live with that,' or otherwise.''

Part of the Boise State deal with the Mountain West was an
agreement that the conference would first consider San Diego State
it if did look for another member. The agreement set an exclusive
window for San Diego State that closes Jan. 31.

''The reason for that deadline is I took 10-team (football)
schedule last week and tore it up,'' Thompson said. ''Before we go
to the computer and ask it to create an 11-team schedule we ought
to see if it's going to be a 12-team schedule.''

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